<p>"The problem, however, isn’t that America has become more conservative – this country has never embraced the kind of socialistic fantasies that cripple statist economies in places like France, or from which Thatcher had to rescue the Brits - America on the whole has never embraced the kind of extreme ideologies that held sway on the Antioch campus."</p>
<p>My experience in the 60s and early 70s is different than this. During that period, I think a large number of student-age people of my acquaintance DID, actually embrace these principles. Or other non-mainstream principles. Their parents by and large didn't. In many cases though the kids held sway with college decisions, both then and now.</p>
<p>During the Vietnam era one's graduation present was a draft notice. Staying in school as long as possible was mandatory. In my circles back then, business was in disfavor among college students. NYU business school had an admit rate over 70%. All of this changed once the war ended. Going to school forever was no longer so obviously worthwhile an objective, and going into the business world not only lost its stigma but became desirable among a much greater proportion of students. IMO.</p>
<p>The point isn't what some aggregate of America in total believes. It's what consumers of the higher education product- incoming students- believe. I think incoming students as a group DID change their viewpoint, from the the late 60s to the early 80s, in a way that might have been detrimental to the size of Antioch's potential applicant pool.</p>
<p>"it's hard to believe that smart kids actually believe that they will be more employable if they can derive a demand curve and a production isoquant than if they merely write well and argue clearly."</p>
<p>Many, many people hold exactly this view. The post right above is but one indication, but you will see this perpective reflected all over CC.</p>
<p>You may disagree with their perspective on this, as in fact I do, but I don't find it at all hard to believe that people hold the opinions I read them expressing here frequently.</p>
<p>If you mention Antioch to any kid they immediately laugh and say- DRUGS. The 60's are gone and hopefully so are the druggies who want to comtemplate their navel in an attempt to glorify getting stoned. Sorry to offend the idealists but drugs were a big part of Antioch- Not everyone wants to go the Goldman Sachs route but many see practical scholarship a better route to save the planet.</p>
<p>Without hijacking the thread, it is interesting to note that some schools that are quite different, like Reed and Chicago (where my D is 4th year in the fall) are thriving without much dilution of their historic uniqueness.</p>
<p>Antioch just lost sight of its first, primary mission, to educate well, IMHO.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If Antioch walked away from its mission in an attempt to become viable, that approach was misguided. It is through a celebration of uniqueness that an institution positions itself, in both an idealistic and practical sense.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This was so well-stated. And it hit close to home because I am an alum who has also seen her alma mater abandon a long-held ideal in pursuit of a more generic kind of student. Those who chose the plan assume it was the only path to survival, but some of us worry that it will simply see a slow decline as less-distinctive college.</p>
<p>A parent shared this analogy--he said if a church had declining enrollment, would it say "maybe we should stop offering Christianity?" No, it would try everything else first. That's what I think distinctive colleges need to do--they need to stay distinctive, and not give up their niche. The niche may be hard to market, but you don't give it up if it's part of a core value.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this news is not too suprising. I was last at Antioch about a year ago and what everyone says about the degradation of the physical facilities is true. If you can't keep the grass cut, then that is probably a pretty good sign that an institution has problems.</p>
<p>I think that the issue with Antioch has very little to do with the general political climate or the "political correctness" associated with Antioch. With all due respect to Antioch and those who graduated from Antioch, there are a number of institutions just as liberal and countercultural as Antioch -- College of the Atlantic, Warren Wilson, Reed, Hampshire, New College, Bard, Evergreen. </p>
<p>In my opinion, Antioch has struggled because they lack the financial resources necessary to attract and keep high quality students. Whether the Antioch endowment drain is due to the expansion of satellite campuses or because the Administration failed to adequately build up the endowment to maintain their physical plant and intellectual capital, I don't know. However, given where Antioch came from in the 50's, 60's and 70's, it is clear that successive administrations failed to adequately confront the painful realities of the situation.</p>
<p>I also attend a rather liberal school, New College of Florida. While the students are often radical, the administration focuses solely on New College's academic mission. Perhaps this is a key distinction between Antioch and some of the liberal colleges mentioned in the previous post. </p>
<p>I would imagine that Antioch's proximity to Oberlin did not help. There is nothing quite like NCF anywhere in the South, especially for the bargain cost.</p>
<p>It HAS been to NGO's what other schools are to investment banking. People who work at non-profits don't make as much money, so can't give as much back to a college. It's been a problem all along for schools like Antioch. It's just as expensive to educate idealists as anyone else. We visited St. John's too. It seemed a lot like Antioch to me.</p>
<p>Other schools have dealt with the fundraising problem successfully. Take Chicago, which is famous for sending its grads to the academic world and has a distinct lack of pre-professional focus. It is one of the reasons its endowment is not like Yale's or Harvards (one of many of course) but they have not been unsuccessful in fundraising. So it is not just an NGO focus. And before you ask, the professional schools there keep the money they raise. So the business school keeps its funds.</p>
<p>I think it's pretty obvious that they haven't been stellar in the $$ department. And a school like Grinnell, that is also very socially concious and has more Peace Corps volunteers, I think, than any other LAC also has the highest endowment of any LAC. So, yeah, they needed to do better with money management. I was just responding to LAV's post. It's harder to get blood from a turnip.</p>
<p>You are correct that this is the official statement of the school. However, I think that most individuals believe that the idea that they will re-open their residential campus in four years is, at best, questionable. I can't think of another school that shuttered their residential program only to later open it back up, refreshed and renewed. Though not many other schools have Antioch's history either. So, who knows. Antioch alums can tell you that over the last twenty or so years, it seems like about every third or fourth year there is new plan to re-invigorate the college, coupled with a new effort to raise funds for that purpose.</p>
<p>Lately, I have been reading David Swensen's book, Pioneering Portfolio Management (yeah, my life is just that exciting). For those who don't know, David Swensen is Yale's Chief Investment Officer and he has had remarkable success at strengthening Yale's endowment. He writes on p. 17,
"Reliable distributions from endowment create an important measure of stability for educational institutions. Under normal circumstances, greater levels of endowment serve to improve the qulaity of an organization's revenue stream, allowing heavier reliance on internally generated income. When faced with extraordinary finanacial stress, endowment assets provide a cushion, perhaps by paying out unusually large distributions, giving the institution an opportunity to address the disruptive fiscal issues."</p>
<p>It is clear to me that Antioch dipped into their endowment well so often that the endowment no longer could provide that necessary financial cushion for the residential program to continue. Hopefully, Antioch's demise and Goddard and Prescott's stuggles will be instructive to other small schools that it is essential that they build their endowment to assure that they can continue their mission.</p>
<p>(An aside -- David Swensen's undergraduate degree is from UW-River Falls. I only point that out because there is so many students put so much emphasis on where they get their undergraduate degrees.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
That is very sad. Due to its long history of activism, I've always liked that college though I've never seen it.
[/quote]
I have a friend who would have been an '11. His tour of the campus involved walking into an orgy in one of the commons. Perhaps never seeing it was for the best!</p>